A Letter to Newbie Writers
Don’t count on them
I took part in an article competition in Portugal, but it’s over now. Unfortunately, my material only came 5th. But in such a big box, the author’s edition of the magazine and an incentive prize were delivered straight to my home by post. Nice.
I invite beginners (like me) and popular authors to share their experiences.
The most important thing is that taking the time to write articles pays off.
I’ve already got my second job thanks to writing: my previous boss read my article in “Administrador de Sistemas”, and I met my current boss when I received an invitation from a website in Portugal for my translation.
If you want a professional relationship, work with professionals. When sending your material, don’t count on a quick response, often it doesn’t even arrive, but some publications show a human touch.
For me, I’ve noted “Hacker” and “System Administrator”.
The most pleasant thing is to communicate with the “System Administrator” — you will receive an answer about your offer to be posted within a few days, and the decision about publication takes no more than 2 weeks. And you are guaranteed to receive a fee.
In the “hacker,” they will intimidate you, force you to format the article in a certain way in a text file, putting in all sorts of special characters, and they will also translate the article into the “language of scum”.
But these are all small things compared to what you need to do to publish — just reading the instructions is depressing.
Don’t expect quick publication.
Your article will probably not appear in the journal until a month after it has been approved.
Sometimes responsible editors and technical experts come up against each other. I was lucky enough to work with someone from “System Administrator” together and we reviewed a lot of the material — I even wanted to list him as a co-author, but he refused.
Be prepared to accept criticism and make edits; this process can take a few weeks.
Don’t expect feedback from readers of printed publications. The magazine will list your e-mail address, but no one will write to it. Internet communities are much more productive in this respect.
In the “Microsoft world” there are comrades involved in public relations, they often have MVP status and hold the position of “evangelist”.
Don’t count on them especially, even though communicating with people like us seems to be their direct responsibility.
I tried contacting several of them with an offer to do translations, one replied and then disappeared.
A friend talked to an Adobe “evangelist” (maybe he has a different name) — they seem to be doing better with this. I hope you’ve learned something new from this post.
